Study Desk

and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

For he not only accepted the exhortation, but being more diligent, he went to you of his own accord.

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

As it is written: "He has dispersed abroad,He has given to the poor;His righteousness endures forever." Psalms 112:9 ">[fn]

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

"For his letters," they say, "are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible."

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity [fn] that is in Christ.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,

to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

Now when Peter [fn] had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:15; Genesis 24:7">[fn] who is Christ.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born [fn] of a woman, born under the law,

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"

I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.